IND v SA: Rabada getting into top gear, says South Africa bowling coach Vincent Barnes

Kagiso Rabada is slowly showing signs of getting his mojo back as indicated by his spell in the post lunch session, observed South Africa’s bowling coach Vincent Barnes.

Rabada was the only Proteas bowler, who made some kind of impact with figures of 3 for 48 in India’s 273 for 3 on the first day of the second Test.

“It was fantastic to see him bowl, especially, the spell after lunch. I thought he bowled well in Vizag (Visakhapatnam) as well. Today, there were a lot of signs that he is getting to the top,” Barnes said at the end of the day’s play.

In fact, patience is the key for fast bowlers on this track as Rabada showed by getting Cheteshwar Pujara’s wicket with persistence.

“Our focus on this tour is to bowl to our strengths. The plan was to be patient on a wicket that was going to give us assistance in the morning,” Barnes said.

“We had to keep bowling in the right areas and they would make mistakes. Pujara at one stage looked set and KG (Rabada) bowled in the right area and got the wicket.”

But he did admit that in the morning session with a bit of luck (Pujara was dropped on zero), South Africa’s new ball bowlers could have picked up a couple of more wickets.

“When we looked at the conditions this morning, the window for the fast bowlers was a lot longer than compared to Visakhapatnam. I thought that we bowled quite well this morning. And, with a bit of luck, we could have had a few more wickets,” Barnes said.